After the death of Moses the servant of Yahweh, Yahweh said to Joshua son of Nun, the assistant of Moses, saying, "My servant Moses is dead. Get up and cross the Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the Israelites. Every place that the soles of your feet will tread, I have given it to you, as I promised to Moses. From the wilderness and the Lebanon, up to the great river, the river Euphrates, all of the land of the Hittites, and up to the great sea in the west, will be your territory. No one will stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so will I be with you; I will not fail you, and I will not forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you will give the people this land as an inheritance that I swore to their ancestors to give them. Only be strong and very courageous to observe diligently the whole law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn aside from it, to the right or left, so that you may succeed wherever you go. The scroll of this law will not depart from your mouth; you will meditate on it day and night so that you may observe diligently all that is written in it. For then you will succeed in your ways and prosper. Did I not command you? Be strong and courageous! Do not fear or be dismayed, for Yahweh your God is with you wherever you go." Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, "Pass through the midst of the camp and command the people: ‘Prepare your provisions; in three days you are to cross the Jordan to go possess the land that Yahweh your God is giving you to possess.’"

To the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh Joshua said, "Remember the word that Moses Yahweh’s servant commanded you, saying, ‘Yahweh your God is giving rest to you, and he is giving you this land.’ Your wives, your little children, and your livestock, they will remain in the land that Moses gave to you beyond the Jordan. All of the best fighting men will cross armed in front of your families; they will help you until Yahweh gives rest to your families as well as to you. They will take possession of the land that Yahweh your God is giving to them. Then you will return to your own land and take possession of it, the land that Moses the servant of Yahweh gave you beyond the Jordan to the east." And they answered Joshua, saying, "All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you will send us we will go. Just as we obeyed Moses, so will we obey you. Only may Yahweh your God be with you, as he was with Moses. Whoever rebels against your orders and does not obey your words according to what you commanded us will be put to death. Only be strong and courageous."

Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two men from Acacia Grove as spies, saying, "Go, view the land, especially Jericho." So they went, and entered the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab, and spent the night there. The king of Jericho was told, "Look, some men from the Israelites have come here tonight to search out the land." And the king of Jericho sent for Rahab, saying, "Bring out the men who came to you, the ones who have entered your house, for they have come to search out the whole land." But the woman took the two men and hid them. And she said, "Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. And when it was time to shut the gate for the night, the men left, and I do not know where they went. Chase after them quickly, for you may catch up to them." (But she had taken them to the roof and had hidden them in the stalks of flax that she had spread out on the roof.) So the men chased after them on the way to the Jordan at the fords; and they shut the gate behind the pursuers that had gone out after them.

Before they went to sleep, she came up to them on the roof and said to the men, "I know that Yahweh has given you the land, and that dread of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away in fear because of your presence. For we have heard how Yahweh dried up the waters of the Red Sea before you when you went out from Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites that were beyond the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. We heard this, and our hearts melted, and no courage was left in anyone because of your presence. For Yahweh your God is God in the heavens above and on the earth below. So then please swear to me by Yahweh, because I have shown loyalty to you, and you will also show loyalty to my family. You must give me a sign of good faith, and you will spare my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all that belongs to them; you will deliver our lives from death." And the men said to her, "Our lives for yours. If you do not report this business of ours, we will show you loyalty and faithfulness when Yahweh gives us the land."

Then she lowered them with a rope through the window, as her house was on the outer side of the wall, and she was residing in the wall. And she said to them, "Go to the mountain, so that the pursuers will not find you, and hide yourselves there three days until the pursuers return, and afterward you may go on your way." The men said to her, "We will be released from this oath of yours that you made us swear. When we come to the land, you must tie this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and you must gather your father and mother, and your brothers, and your whole family to your house. If anyone goes outside the doors of your house, they will be responsible for their own death, and we will be innocent. Anyone who will be with you in the house, we will be responsible for their death if a hand is laid on them. But if you report this business of ours, we will be released from your oath that you made us swear." And she said, "According to your word it will be." Then she sent them away, and they went, and she tied the scarlet cord in the window.

They departed and came to the mountain, and they stayed there three days until the pursuers returned. The pursuers searched all along the way but did not find them. The two men returned and went down from the mountain, and they crossed over and came to Joshua son of Nun, and they told him everything that happened to them. They said to Joshua, "Surely Yahweh has given all the land into our hand; also, all the inhabitants of the land melt away in fear because of our presence."

Joshua rose early in the morning, and they set out from Acacia Grove. And they came up to the Jordan, he and all the Israelites, and they spent the night there before they crossed over. At the end of the three days the officers passed through the midst of the camp, and they commanded the people: "When you see the Levitical priests carrying the ark of the covenant of Yahweh your God you must set out from your place and go after it. But there will be a distance between you and it of about two thousand cubits in measurement. Do not come near it, so that you may know the way that you must go, for you have not passed on this way before." And Joshua said to the people, "Sanctify yourselves, because tomorrow Yahweh will do wonders in your midst." And Joshua said to the priests, "Take up the ark of the covenant and cross over ahead of the people." And they took up the ark of the covenant and went ahead of the people.

Then Yahweh said to Joshua, "This day I will begin exalting you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that I was with Moses, and I will be with you. You will command the priests carrying the ark of the covenant, saying, ‘At the moment that you come to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, you will stand still in the Jordan.’" And Joshua said to the Israelites, "Come here, and hear the words of Yahweh your God." Joshua said, "By this you will know that the living God is in your midst, and he will certainly drive out the Canaanites from before you, and the Hittites, Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites. Look! The ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is about to cross over ahead of you into the Jordan. So then, take twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. When the soles of the feet of the priests carrying the ark of Yahweh, Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan will be cut off upstream, and they will stand still in one heap.

And it happened, when the people set out from their tents to cross over the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant were ahead of the people. When those carrying the ark came up to the Jordan, and the priests carrying the ark dipped their feet in the edge of the water (the Jordan was flowing over its banks during all the days of harvest), the waters flowing down from above stood still; they stood up in one heap very far from Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, while the waters flowing down to the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off; and the people crossed over opposite Jericho. And the priests carrying the ark of the covenant of Yahweh stood firmly on the dry land in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel crossed on dry ground, until all the nation finished crossing the Jordan.

After all the nation finished crossing the Jordan, Yahweh said to Joshua, "Take twelve men from the people, one man from each tribe, and command them, saying, ‘Take for yourselves twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan where the priests’ feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you, and set them up in the place where you will camp tonight.’" So Joshua summoned the twelve men whom he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe. And Joshua said to them, "Cross over before the ark of Yahweh your God to the middle of the Jordan, and each one of you lift up a stone on your shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, so that this may be a reminder among you. When your children ask in the future, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ you will say to them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off from before the ark of the covenant of Yahweh. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones will be as a memorial for the Israelites for eternity."

Thus the Israelites did as Joshua commanded. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan as Yahweh told Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, and they carried them over with them to the camp, and they put them there. Then Joshua set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests carrying the ark of the covenant stood, and they are there to this day. The priests carrying the ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything that Yahweh commanded Joshua to tell the people was finished, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua. And the people hastily crossed over.

And it happened, when all the people had finished crossing, the ark of Yahweh and the priests crossed over in front of the people. The children of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over armed before the Israelites, as Moses told them. About forty thousand armed for fighting crossed over before the presence of Yahweh to the plains of Jericho for battle. On that day Yahweh exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they respected him as they respected Moses all the days of his life.

Then Yahweh said to Joshua, saying, "Command the priests carrying the ark of the testimony to come up from the Jordan." So Joshua commanded the priests, saying, "Come up from the Jordan." And it happened that when the priests carrying the ark came up from the middle of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet touched dry land, the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and flowed over all its banks as before.

And the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they camped in Gilgal on the eastern edge of Jericho. And those twelve stones that they took from the Jordan, Joshua set up in Gilgal. And he said to the Israelites, "When your children ask in the future their parents, ‘What is the meaning of these stones?’ you will let your children know by saying, ‘Israel crossed this Jordan on dry ground.’ For Yahweh your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you, until you had crossed, just as Yahweh your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up before us until we had crossed over, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of Yahweh is strong, so that you may fear Yahweh your God forever."

A psalm of David.

And it happened that when he came to the house of a certain one of the leaders of the Pharisees on a Sabbath to eat a meal, they were watching him closely. And behold, a certain man was in front of him, suffering from edema. And Jesus answered and said to the legal experts and Pharisees, saying, "Is it permitted to heal on the Sabbath, or not?" But they remained silent. And he took hold of him and healed him, and sent him away. And he said to them, "Who among you, if your son or your ox falls into a well on the day of the Sabbath, will not immediately pull him out?" And they were not able to make a reply to these things.

Now he told a parable to those who had been invited when he noticed how they were choosing for themselves the places of honor, saying to them, "When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not recline at the table in the place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you has been invited by him, and the one who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give the place to this person,’ and then with shame you will begin to take the last place. But when you are invited, go and recline at the table in the last place, so that when the one who invited you comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then it will be an honor to you in the presence of all those who are reclining at the table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted."

And he also said to the one who had invited him, "When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or wealthy neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and repayment come to you. But whenever you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they are not able to repay you. For it will be paid back to you at the resurrection of the righteous."

Now when one of those reclining at the table with him heard these things, he said to him, "Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!" But he said to him, "A certain man was giving a large banquet and invited many. And he sent his slave at the hour of the banquet to say to those who have been invited, ‘Come, because now it is ready!’ And they all alike began to excuse themselves. The first said to him, ‘I have purchased a field, and I must go out to look at it. I ask you, consider me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have purchased five yoke of oxen, and I am going to examine them. I ask you, consider me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and for this reason I am not able to come.’ And the slave came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame!’ And the slave said, ‘Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.’ And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges and press them to come in, so that my house will be filled! For I say to you that none of those persons who were invited will taste my banquet!’"

Now large crowds were going along with him, and he turned around and said to them, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, and furthermore, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, wanting to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish it, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish!’ Or what king, going out to engage another king in battle, does not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand. But if not, while the other is still far away, he sends an ambassador and asks for terms of peace. In the same way, therefore, every one of you who does not renounce all his own possessions cannot be my disciple.

"Now salt is good, but if salt becomes tasteless, with what will it be made salty? It is usable neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; they throw it out. The one who has ears to hear, let him hear!"